Number Needed to Treat (NNT)

The number needed to treat (NNT) is the estimated number of patients who need to be treated with the new treatment rather than the standard treatment (or no treatment) for one additional patient to benefit (Altman 1998).

A negative number for the number needed to treat has been called the number needed to harm.

MedCalc uses the terminology suggested by Altman (1998) with NNT(Benefit) and NNT(Harm) being the number of patients needed to be treated for one additional patient to benefit or to be harmed respectively.

The 95% confidence interval is calculated according to Daly (1998) and is reported as suggested by Altman (1998).

Test of significance: the P-value is calculated according to Sheskin, 2004 (p. 542). A standard normal deviate (z-value) is calculated as ln(RR)/SE{ln(RR)}, and the P-value is the area of the normal distribution that falls outside ±z (see Values of the Normal distribution table).